If you don’t normally look at Head for Points in the evening, make an exception tonight.
Virgin Atlantic is launching its new A350 aircraft this evening, which means it will be unveiling its new Upper Class Suite too.
It is totally different from what has gone before.
Come back at 7pm and we’ll tell you all about it.
The party started at 6pm and you can get a sneak peak of what we’ve seen so far by heading over to our Instagram page and clicking on the ‘story’ video (click our logo).
About Head for Points
A few clues from the Times interview with Shai Weiss yesterday..
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/business/interview-shai-weiss-the-pilot-keen-to-fly-virgin-atlantic-out-of-the-red-j9pqkcnlr
Forward-facing suites,
bar replaced by 8 seat lounge which is also a lobby style entrance for all passengers
Bigger seats and large screens
Economy 36 of 335 seats have 34 inch legroom
Apparently the new cabin will be eventually installed across the fleet but no hint on timing.
Don’t put your money on that in a hurry.
I’ve always found the Virgin bar a bit of an oddity as I have never seen it used as a bar. More of a place for cabin crew to sit and store things.
The new smaller bar on the Airbus aircraft is indeed less inviting.
However, the previous larger incarnation, with 5 seats, was a terrific place to hang out and make new friends. I’ve had many flights over the years spending a few hours at the bar, being far too noisy for the nearby pax trying to sleep. Back in the day, it was consistently tended too (if only to stop us helping ourselves to the drink).
Rob, exclusive live feed from Crawley Towers?
I’ve asked Rhys to shoot a bit of video, because I know what he’s going to see and it is quite cool, which we can hopefully edit for Wednesday.
Well done on getting Rhys to do it.
Such a pity he wants a real job instead.
🙂
Can’t you do a live Instagram video? That’s what all the cool kidz do these days, don’t you know…?
What happened the new employee, when £40K role was advertised last year?
Update coming very soon.
Instagram / yourtube stories – come on 🙂
Better than BA’s new Club Suite?
Different to BA’s new Club Suite. Some will prefer BA, some Virgin. I have sat in the Virgin seat but I’ve only seen the BA seat via VR, so it is not a fair comparison so far.
Also worth flagging that VS is changing all three cabins.
Interesting as I still think their premium economy seat is one of the best on the market…
Agreed, their PE is a great product for a daytime flight 6-9 hours.
+1 … apart from typical tech upgrades due to the march of time and technology, literally the only thing I’d change is the option to lift the armrests so that small childern can sleep horizontal with their head on you or you can take better advantage of a sparsely populated cabin.
Virgin PE upstairs on the 747. Very peaceful. Get to say hello to the pilot as he nips to the loo or downstairs for snacks.
I prefer the VS Premium product as a whole over BA’s WT+, but the VS seat hinges at the wrong place so my knees get crushed every time the person in front goes to full recline. As the BA WT+ seat shows there’s a pretty easy design fix. Now … if VS are updating Premium too and get that right then they really will have a significant edge.
Sorry this is OT – for the BA double avios promo, is it only valid for BA flights booked on BA.com or can I use expedia and still receive double avios?
Should work for travel agents. I’ve had bonus miles from flights booked via work agents in the past.
Work agents are corporate travel agents mostly.
this is different from OTA’s such as expedia, opodo etc.
Often OTA’s are excluded from promos (eg especially for hotels, can be flights too).
The airlines need corporate travel agents so if anything, bookings through those get more privileges not less and defo not excluded from offers.
I would like to know if OTA’s are excluded from the double avios offer – I didn;t see anything in the t’c and c’s but as it’s hard for me to commit to travel dates ATM so I didn’t really think I could use the offer with its booking deadline, I hadn;t really taken a closer look yet.
I tweeted BA and they replied that only direct bookings count :/ the flights i want are a good £200 more expensive on BA’s website….
Book it on BA.com and use the Best Price Guarantee then! They’ll send you a voucher for £200 after you’ve booked. (Check full T&Cs on BA.com just to make sure you’re covered.)
Nothing in the T&Cs to exclude travel agent bookings, indeed they explicitly mention the possibility of using one: ‘Please contact your travel agent / travel partner for any applicable service fees when purchasing a ticket from them and requesting the specific booking date and flight details.’
You mean the BA Twitter team doesn’t have a clue? Surely not…
OT
Took my first Iberia business flight yesterday as part of the promo. Madrid to LAX. Plane was nice and seat was actually really nice. Food and service however were absolutely terrible. Seemed to be an inconvenience to the crew everytime you asked for anything and only saw them when it was time for food. The one staff member who was there was sat in the galley reading a book and having a drink . Would never pay to fly with them.
Funny. We flew Madrid-New York last year and loved it.
Exactly the same experience.
Iberia also thinks that several pieces of sweet bread can represent A MAIN COURSE for breakfast. That’s on JFK – MAD.
I would seriously think before bothering to fly out of Madrid for that “business” on IB.
Yes, the seat but travel time direct from the UK will be much shorter and doable, I evaluate IB business experience on transatlantic the same as front of Eco cabin AA (extra room seats) or Virgin PE.
Only a half door (closes half way) for the new UC seat
Slightly off-topic, but has anyone heard anything about the imminent launch of the Virgin Group Loyalty Company? I think Rob mentioned in a previous discussion that (amusingly) 01 April was a date being talked about.
There’s been a few VS press announcements of late (and Virgin Group announcements- Virgin Train USA updates), I’m assuming that VGLC will be a separate announcement to today’s new cabin reveal (unless they pull an Apple-style ‘One more thing’)
Still on track, I am seeing them this month
OT – I have a Platinum card, i was wondering, can I self refer for any other card to get the referral points.
And is self refer simply just using the link I would have sent to friends. And can i self refer for more than one card?
Yes and Yes – although given credit checks I personally wouldn’t try applying for two in quick succession!
7pm?? I’m on the train and was looking forward to some interesting reading!
Virgin’s rules ….
Pictures are in the wild, folks,,,,
https://mobile.twitter.com/AusBT/status/1115304475739078657
Rhys has already filed an Instagram story – see https://www.instagram.com/headforpoints/
I cannot reveal until 7pm under my deal with Virgin.
Nice work, Rhys – looks good – wish it was going to be ready for my flight with them in September! Looks like it’ll just be on LHR-JFK to begin with though 🙁
I really like it.
I suspect BA regulars won’t, as it looks too “fun” compared to the dark business-look of the new BA seat.
Both are terrific improvements though. Yay!!
Hmmm I’m a Virgin fan over BA generally but so far I’m liking the BA seat more (as are the voters on HfP Insta). Like the Loft idea though. Colour scheme of suites looks a bit “sickly”.
Re ‘sickly’ colour scheme – I thought the same until I realised that the h4p photos are reflecting the red cabin lights to an extreme degree – the colour scheme on the official photos (on Virgin’s insta) looks completely different.
The biggest difference between the two seats from my personal, subjective perspective is doors vs no doors.
I don’t like doors. The BA door is only 3 feet high and it is very difficult to serve you with it shut, and it makes the seat a bit claustraphobic. Don’t get too won over by the idea, although I may well change my tune when I’ve flown it. I’ve done Emirates First with full height doors and 3 x Etihad First with high doors, and am not won over.
19:01 and no update. How disrespectful 😂
Your watch was fast!